Mass Killers: Bad Hygiene, Semi-Automatic Handguns, Most Did Not Serve in Military: Nidal Hasan Included in Homeland Security Study

A November 2012 study by Homeland Security concluded that mass killers are almost always male with bad hygiene, likely did not serve in the military and the weapons of choice are overwhelmingly semi-automatic handguns. The study used 29 “major” mass killings since 1999, which included Nidal Hasan, the Ft. Hood jihadist. The study reveals that half of the murders were “workplace” violence, which is how Nidal Hasan’s heinous acts against his fellow soldiers are classified by this administration – not jihad, as he yelled “allahu akhbar and mowed down our military – but only after Military brass allowed him to continue his soft jihad at Walter Reed Hospital for years:

Nidal Hasan – poor hygiene under his Islamic garb?

Its practical advice is to be more concerned by your co-worker with the bad hygiene who mutters about putting his “things in order” than by the war veteran in the next cubicle.

The basic pattern found by the New Jersey DHS fusion center, and obtained by Public Intelligence (.PDF), is one of a killer who lashes out at his co-workers. Thirteen out of the 29 observed cases “occurred at the workplace and were conducted by either a former employee or relative of an employee,” the November report finds. His “weapon of choice” is a semiautomatic handgun, rather than the rifles that garnered so much attention after Newtown. The infamous Columbine school slaying of 1999 is the only case in which killers worked in teams: they’re almost always solo acts — and one-off affairs. In every single one of them, the killer was male, between the age of 17 and 49.

They also don’t have military training. Veterans are justifiably angered by the Hollywood-driven meme of the unhinged vet who takes out his battlefield stress on his fellow Americans. (Thanks, Rambo.) In only four of the 29 cases did the shooter have any affiliation with the U.S. military, either active or prior at the time of the slaying, and the fusion center doesn’t mention any wartime experience of the killers. Yet the Army still feels the need to email reporters after each shooting to explain that the killer never served. Read the entire comprehensive story at Wired – Danger Room

To make the point again, this is a recent study from the Department of Homeland Security. Semiautomatic handguns and rifles are not “automatics.” They allow only one shot per finger pull. There is no “spray fire.” They are not in any way similar to a machine gun.